I have a few new toys to play with. First, I finally got a mobile phone. It's amazing how difficult it can be to meet people without one, as my "finding people in Shinjuku" experiences taught me. My cousin was coming from England on a package holiday, and I wanted to be sure not to miss her, so that gave me the push I needed to do it NOW. I have also got Sky Mail in my phone - I can send and receive short e-mails with others on the J-Phone system, which saves money on phone calls, and I can also send e-mails, but I guess I have to pay extra to receive them. Anyway, there's a limit of 128 characters, which isn't much, so I probably won't bother with that. Japanese phones are different from Canadian ones - aside from the fact that they're very small and cheap to buy, we only pay for airtime for the calls we make - incoming ones are free to us!

I look forward to receiving calls at odd hours from various time zones!!!

I also have a bicycle and a TV. A friend got a new job, which provides her with a furnished apartment which includes a TV and a bike. So she very generously gave me hers!!! The bike is a "mama-chari", a shopping bike on which I sit upright and can easily get around in long or short skirts and various other business attire. I have a basket on the front, a headlight which runs by power generated from rubbing against the front wheel rim, and NO GEARS! Hills are going to get me back into shape fast! And now I can cycle to the gym in 10 minutes.

I thought the tv was bilingual but I can't find that function on the remote. Japanese tv is pretty awful, focussing mainly on embarrassing and maybe even injuring game-show participants as much as possible. ("The Simpsons in Japan" episode was not as far-fetched as you might think!) Nonetheless, many shows have Japanese subtitles and I hope it will help me to learn the language.

One more thing - I've discovered the joys of karaoke over the past couple of weeks - it's great fun and I think I'm a WONDERFUL singer!!! ;-)

Copyright Ailsa Wylie 1999